ENGINEERING.com’s survey of Online Engineering Degree Programs in North America

Online Master of Engineering Degrees grew by 79%
Our editors contacted eleven universities offering online Master of Engineering programs. Of those that reported enrollment data, the average program growth over the past 5 years has been 79%. That’s an annual growth rate of more than 12%. And while some fared better than others, every university we contacted reported significant growth in their online Master of Engineering programs.

The trend for on-campus Master of Engineering programs is also positive. The numbers are up approximately 13% over the 5 year horizon we studied for this report. Half of that growth came in the last year.

Online or on campus - Master of Engineering programs are more popular than ever

According to the American Society for Engineering Education, there were over 41,000 Master in Engineering awarded in the 2008/09 academic year, up 6.8% from the prior year.

That makes the 2008/09 academic year the biggest ever for Master of Engineering degrees, whether on campus or online.

This trend shows no signs of slowing down. The enrollment for 2009/10 is up another 7%!

Read on to learn why more people are taking these degrees, and what you can expect if you decide to take that step.

Why take a Masters’ Degree in Engineering?
Engineers take Masters’ degrees to advance their career. Full stop. Almost all part-time Masters’ students at the schools we studied are already employed. These ambitious individuals take advanced degrees to improve their current or future job performance and career prospects.

Why Online?Reason 1 – Class Scheduling
According to Forrest Ames at the University of North Dakota, their online program began as a partnership with a large local employer who wanted a way to upgrade the skills of their engineers without sending them away to school. She went on to say that "the majority of our online students are employees with full time jobs." Clearly, the convenience of being able to take classes when you want rather than when they are offered in a lecture hall is a deciding factor for many of these students.

Reason 2 – Keeping your job
Stephen Sattler from Johns Hopkins pointed out, "The vast majority of our prospective students are currently employed and seeking a part-time graduate degree to increase their knowledge or advance in their careers. People who take online or part-time master’s degrees don’t want to stop their careers to continue their education."

Reason 3 – Financial
The economics of online degrees are superior to commuting or moving to a school. Students can keep their jobs, keep their current housing arrangement and keep their cars in the garage. And since many of the best engineering schools in the country now offer online Masters’ degrees, these students aren’t compromising their education to do so.

Case Study
LCDR Teague Swalm chose to complete his Master’s in Engineering online with Mississippi State University. He stressed the importance of distance education to a Navy pilot.

"Swami" deploys extensively overseas to areas such as the Western Pacific, Afghanistan and Central & South America. A distance education program is the only way he could engage in continued education: "Spare time isn't a luxury I have. A robust deployment schedule sometimes meant taking classes from 3 or 4 different locations around the world. And when I'm home there's the family with two kids, so I would regularly log into the online campus after the little guys fell asleep, many times 9 pm or later. Without a distance program, further education just wouldn't be feasible."

Continuing education was also critical to his career advancement, "In my case, simply having an advanced technical degree is certainly career enhancing. The Navy doesn't officially require an advanced degree, but within such a competitive peer group, the reality is that an officer's career will most likely stagnate without at least a Masters’."

The convenience factor is a huge reason why people take their degrees online. They can continue to work full-time and schedule their school time in the evenings or on weekends. And for many working engineers, quitting their jobs and going back to school full-time is just not a financial possibility.

These reasons are fueling huge growth in online course demand. The following chart was obtained from one school. We’ve camouflaged the data, but the growth rates are real.

Who is taking their Master of Engineering Online?
Christine Fagan, Marketing Analyst at Drexel University, provided the following demographics for their online student body: "Engineers in our Engineering Management program hold at least a Bachelors’ degree, and generally have a minimum of 3-5 years of experience in industry (or with an engineering-intensive government function). Current demographics are approximately 80% male/20% female. Minimum age is estimated at 23, and Maximum age is estimated at 55. Most students in our program are employed full-time."

We heard a similar story from Dawn Utley, Director of Distance Learning at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She pointed out their student body is 2/3 male and 1/3 female with an average age of 42 years old.

Case Study
Dan Plymire was working on his Masters’ degree at John’s Hopkins University when he landed a job in Pittsburgh. He had to move before finishing his coursework, but was able to complete the degree online. "Fortunately, I found out that the entire program was available online, so I didn’t need to live close to campus. And with a wide range of courses, I could easily tailor the program to reflect my specific interests," he says.

Dan thrived in his online classes, which he says promoted a great deal of interaction between students. "We had ongoing opportunities to collaborate with other students." And Dan adds: "Reading so much scientific literature and having intensive weekly assignments helped me become a much better writer.

What does it cost?
Schools quote pricing for online courses in terms of cost per course. These range from as low as $861 per course for state residents at the North Carolina State Graduate School to as much as $3,300 for the prestigious Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and $3,600 for Southern Methodist University.

The price per course doesn’t tell you the full price for the program because different schools require more or fewer courses to graduate. See the table below:

What schools offer an online Masters’ Degree in Engineering?
In the following table you will find statistics on several of the top online Master of Engineering programs being offered in the United States. Many schools report their courses required in terms of credit hours. In those cases we have calculated the number of courses from the credit hour requirements.

The online learning experience
Online education has come a long way in the past 20 years. Gone are the video tapes and poor connections. These have now been replaced by sophisticated online learning environments.

For example, the offering at Kansas State includes threaded message boards; chat rooms; and live virtual classroom software offering audio, application sharing, and content display; streaming video that is also downloadable; a live Whiteboard; an online gradebook so students can view their grades; the capability for students to be assigned to ‘Groups’ to work on projects together; and a ‘Dropbox’ for uploading homework assignments and other documents.

Christine Fagan points out that "Drexel students receive access to our Online Learning Team, a group within our Information Resources and Technology department dedicated to ensuring a pleasurable online teaching/learning experience and resolving technology and connectivity issues."

"The feedback from students and faculty has been overwhelmingly positive – it gives participants the option of interacting with their classmates in real-time. Students can also listen to recordings of the events they may have missed," said Robert Zotti, Assistant Dean of WebCampus for Stevens. "Many of our students have told us that through studying online, they’ve developed new skills for managing virtual projects and virtual teams."

The degree granted is the same as on campus
Stephen Sattler from Johns Hopkins University points out that the same professors teach the same courses online as on campus "using technology that is the most effective in delivering the desired learning outcome."

At the University of North Dakota, Forrest Ames states, "I believe that our distance students perceive that our programs are of similar quality to our on-campus offerings. Our distance students view lectures which were recorded when our on-campus students are in class."

At Kansas State University, "All student services for on-campus students are also available to distance students including financial aid and scholarships, technology support, library services, advising, disability support services, career and employment services. The student transcripts and diplomas are exactly the same as campus students’ with no indication that they took their courses online," says Ellen Stauffer.

And Dr. Utley from the University of Alabama in Huntsville added, "All distance learning students are part of a live course with in-class students. The requirements and expectations are the same. Typically the distance learning student GPA is slightly higher than the on-campus population."

Higher grades, the same degree, no commuting and all while you keep your job. It’s no wonder that more people are taking their Master of Engineering degrees online than ever before. [geodesic]

We would like to thank the individuals below for assisting us in conducting the online engineering distance education survey: